Once again, the pursuit of peace and cooperation among nations in South Asia has become more elusive than ever before.

Having been a victim of terrorism itself, the US, as a world leader, should have come down heavily against Pakistan after the latest Pahalgam terror attack on April 22. However, much to India’s disappointment, President Donald Trump described the latest India-Pakistan conflict as going on “for a thousand years”, which will be sorted out by the two nations themselves.

Following the abrupt ceasefire on May 10, for which he repeatedly took credit, President Trump praised Pakistan for being a frontline state in counter-terrorism. He invited the newly elevated Field Marshal Asim Munir to lunch at the White House and, within days, escalated the tariff war with India, which, he disparagingly said, had a “dead economy”. In the same breath, he spoke of an oil exploration deal with Pakistan, further taunting India by saying that someday India might purchase oil from Pakistan.

Over the last 75 years, the US has stood firmly by the side of Pakistan, no matter what. In 1998, Pakistan became the first Islamic state to acquire a nuclear weapon, right under the nose of the United States. Had the ‘Father of the Pakistani Nuclear Bomb’, Dr AQ Khan, had his way, he would have successfully sold this technology clandestinely to........

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